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Tenjin Traveling to China

1787–88
Not on view
This painting depicts the statesman-poet-scholar Sugawara Michizane (845–903) as Tenjin, the deified being he became following his unjust death in exile, and the calamities his angry spirit inflicted upon the imperial court in Kyoto. After his deification, Michizane was revered as a god of agriculture and patron of the falsely accused. One guise in which he is often represented is that of “Totō Tenjin,” or Tenjin on his way to China to visit a Zen Buddhist master. Rosetsu’s vision of Totō Tenjin reflects the artist’s early style, when he was strongly influenced by the deliberate, naturalistic mode of his master, Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795), founder of the Maruyama school.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 長澤蘆雪筆　渡唐天神図
  • Title: Tenjin Traveling to China
  • Artist: Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 (Japanese, 1754–1799)
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: 1787–88
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 35 1/8 × 13 in. (89.2 × 33 cm)
    Overall with mounting: 67 1/8 × 17 11/16 in. (170.5 × 45 cm)
    Overall with knobs: 67 1/8 × 19 1/2 in. (170.5 × 49.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Sue Cassidy Clark, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.418.4
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Sparrows in a Plum Tree, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan
Sparrows in a Plum Tree
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
second half of the 1790s
Two Women and a Puppy, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan
Two Women and a Puppy
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
1787–88
Carp, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan
Carp
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
probably early 19th century
Rats on a Scholar’s Desk , Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan

Rats on a Scholar’s Desk

Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
ca. 1794–95
Moonlit Landscape, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on silk, Japan
Moonlit Landscape
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
1794–95

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